Suturing members or sewing rings are commonly used to accommodate sutures used to attach prostheses, as heart valves, to tissue. The suturing member is made of biologically inert material that is relatively compatible with blood and intracardiac tissue and has structure which does not inhibit tissue ingrowth into the suturing member.
A clamp ring and wire is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 3,099,016 to hold the suturing member on the valve base. A stainless steel ring encased in porous material is used in U.S. Pat. No. 3,396,409 to hold the porous material on the base of the heart valve. Child, in U.S. Pat. No. 3,623,212, discloses a suturing member for implantable devices and the method of making the suturing member on the device. The cover is held on the valve base with a plurality of cords or threads. The sewing member has a single annular flange adapted to accommodate the sutures used to attach the suturing member to the heart tissue. Single annular flanges can only be located in a supra-annular position or a sub-annular position.